Gulf states weigh mass expulsion of Iran agents: 'We can't look the other way any more'

ABU DHABI — The Gulf Cooperation Council has been mulling a plan to deport thousands of suspected Iranian agents.

Arab diplomatic sources said the six GCC states were discussing a proposal to identify and track an estimated 20,000 Shi’ites linked to Iran. They said many of the agents have been activated in 2011 and represented a security threat to the GCC.

“For years, the GCC knew of these people, but looked the other way,” a diplomat said. “We can’t look the other way anymore.”

The Kuwaiti daily A-Siyassa reported that the GCC plan would deport thousands of Lebanese Shi’ites with links to Hizbullah and Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. The newspaper, in a report on March 24, said the plan was drafted in wake of intelligence reports that Lebanese Shi’ites were recruited to demonstrate in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia.